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Security sector reform develops effective and accountable security institutions based on international norms of transparency, accountability, and the rule of law. Stimson experts provide recommendations to strengthen critical security institutions to help ensure the security of a state and its population.

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Shane Mason is a Research Associate in Stimson's South Asia program. Before Stimson, Shane was a Scoville Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where he worked in the Nuclear Policy Program.

The History:

Beginning in 1991, the
United States and Russia launched a multilateral initiative to
cooperatively denuclearize Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, to
disassemble strategic warheads deemed excess to Russian security, to
secure "loose" nuclear materials throughout the former Soviet Union, to
dramatically reduce unsecured Russian stockpiles of chemical agents, and
to redirect former nuclear, chemical and biological weapons scientists
to peaceful pursuits.

The Threat:

The most pressing threat is found in the remnants of a failed
WMD-armed Soviet empire, the territory of which now comprises fifteen
independent states spanning twelve time zones. The main threat emanates
from Russia, which maintains an arsenal of an estimated 15,000 nuclear
warheads, and has an estimated 186 metric tons of plutonium and 1,025
metric tons of highly enriched uranium-enough to build approximately
64,000 warheads.

A recent CIA report faulted the security of Russian nuclear
arsenal facilities, noting that "undetected smuggling has occurred." In
addition, the numbers, locations and security of Russia's thousands of
tactical nuclear weapons are unknown, as these weapons are not governed
by any treaty. These weapons, because of their smaller size and greater
portability, are highly desirable to terrorist groups or states. In
October 2001, the U.S. government became concerned that al Qaeda had
smuggled a 10-kiloton nuclear warhead into New York City. If placed in
lower Manhattan, such a device would likely kill 250,000 people,
seriously injure tens of thousands more, and render the entire area
uninhabitable for decades to come. The U.S. government treated this
threat as highly credible partly because a Russian nuclear commander had
recently reported that he could not account for a 10-kilton warhead
ostensibly under his control.

The Response:

Since 1992, the Department of
Defense, the Department of
Energy and the State
Department have made impressive headway in eliminating these
threats, but much more remains to be done. Below we offer a quick
overview of the progress made by the different US agencies involved in
addressing this threat.

69,218
employees of former weapons institutes engaged by the the International
Science and Technology Center13,000
former weapons experts engaged by the Science and Technology Center of
Ukraine35 former bioweapons
facilities received/receiving training on intellectual property,
international regulatory standards, and commercialization through the
BioIndustry Initiative11
countries completed Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS)
training

--Last
Updated October 2008--

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